This may be an obvious one, but I started doing this a while ago and it helps.

When building kits, I feel I waste time after soldering in one component, and then hunting down the next one. Then I started laying them out ahead of time, which helped a lot, but then I would accidentally bump them and they would get out of order.

So, here is my solution: just tape them down to your work surface, in order. Then you can even take a break (days even) and everything should be where you left off.